Social capital in the form of public confidence and solidarity should be utilized in the effort to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Public communication should be optimized and improved to maintain the social capital.
By
KOMPAS TEAM
·5 minutes read
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The various moves taken by the government to control the COVID-19 pandemic for the last one and a half years have not yet been fully capable of freeing Indonesia from the crises caused by the disease. However, the public remains confident that the government will be able to overcome the pandemic. The confidence constitutes social capital that can be utilized to keep COVID-19 in check.
Results of a survey by the Kompas research and development division in July show that 60.7 percent of respondents are confident that the government will be able to surmount the pandemic. Only 36.4 percent of respondents are not convinced that the government will succeed in controlling COVID-19. In the perspective of public evaluation over the past year, the rate of confidence has indicated a declining trend.
Nonetheless, the confidence rate has remained positive and higher than the public evaluation in October 2020. At the time, the confidence rate was only 55.6 percent with respondents’ distrust scoring the same rate as that of the present. This means that the current level of public confidence is still better.
Public confidence needs to be preserved because it serves as a determinant of the success of the government’s policy on pandemic control. To this end, one of the urgent measures to be taken is the optimization of management of public communication.
According to Gun Gun Heryanto, a political communications lecturer at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, the declining rate of public confidence in the government’s handling of the pandemic is, among other reasons, due to the less-than-optimal management of public communication. The narrations made by officials tend to give rise to unnecessary debates, he said on Tuesday (27/7/2021). They should actually convey messages in a constant and mutually strengthening way.
Communication, Gun Gun added, could also be optimized by compiling accurate data. At present, data concerning the COVID-19 pandemic has yet to be improved. Based on several analyses made on social media, part of the public even tends to disbelieve government data.
Unless these matters are promptly corrected, public distrust of the government will increase.
“If distrust rises, the government will need a longer time to surmount this pandemic,” Gun Gun said.
He added that such distrust would also produce a snowball effect in the sociopolitical sphere, which is already prone to be exploited by those seizing the opportunity for their own benefit.
Organizational reordering
Policy names also keep changing, so the public gets confused.
Paramadina University rector Didik J Rachbini described the coordination of pandemic control as tending to be unclear and too cumbersome. Leaders of the COVID-19 task force have also changed several times.
In this context, Agus Pambagio, a public policy observer from the University of Indonesia (UI), indicated the necessity to also improve the legal basis of COVID-19 control policy-making.
“Policy names also keep changing, so the public gets confused,” he said.
Mobility restriction policies to overcome COVID-19 have, among other names, been called large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), transitional PSBB, public activity restrictions (PPKM), micro PPKM, emergency public activity restrictions PPKM (PPKM Darurat) and now PPKM levels 2, 3 and 4.
The implementation of PPKM Darurat and PPKM levels 2, 3 and 4 is regulated by the Home Ministry. In the view of Agus, the policies should be based on a regulation with a greater legal power, such as a government regulation.
Optimistic
Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said the challenge faced by the government in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic was quite big, yet the government kept striving and working hard.
“By working hard along with the other components of the nation, from central to regional domains, the government is optimistic that we can overcome the pandemic. It will indeed take some time to handle with extra endeavor and obedience, as well as the high discipline of the whole nation,” Pramono said.
He affirmed that so far, the central and regional governments had in fact never ceased preparing and executing strategies for pandemic control. Vaccinations to achieve herd immunity continue to be intensified, as is testing and tracing. As a result, cases in Jakarta and Bali, whose vaccination rates have reached 72 percent and 81 percent, respectively, have started decreasing. The government is also endeavoring to utilize the Merah-Putih vaccine this year.
The campaign for practicing health protocols, like wearing face masks, distancing, avoiding crowds and washing hands frequently, is being carried on. The government continues to encourage people to change their lifestyle to adapt to COVID-19.
Presidential Staff Chief Deputy IV Juri Ardiantoro realized the presence of dissatisfaction with the government’s measures to overcome the pandemic.
“It’s understood because the fact is that the COVID-19 pandemic still shows a high rate of infection. At the same time, public activity restriction policies have an impact on economic affairs,” said Juri.
Regarding this, added Juri, “The government keeps working hard to control the situation and improve its policies, as well as field executions in line with the current dynamism and pandemic developments.” (SYA/ NIA/ CAS/ WKM/ HAR)